Today we got on our bikes!!!!Constable Jo started the session by teaching us how to carry out a safety check on our bikes.
Legally we have to have a back red reflector on our bike, yellow pedal reflectors and our front and back brakes must work well. These are all legal requirements and if we were riding our bikes on the road without any of these things then we would get a ticket.
We also checked out the size of our bike. We know our bike is the right size if we can sit on the seat and we can reach the ground with the toes of both feet. To check that our seat is at the right height, we sit on it and our leg should be straight at the botton of the turn of our pedal.
We should also check that our tyres have plenty of air in them, and that our handle bars are tight.
Then it was time to ride.....Wow did Constable Jo test our skills!!!
The first test was to ride our bike between two fire hoses. The track was very narrow and we had to try and keep both of our wheels within the narrow track. It was harder than you would think.
When we got confident with our balance we were tested further, because we had to look over our right shoulder (as though checking for traffic) and count how many fingers the teacher was holding up - all while staying in the narrow track! That WAS tricky!!!!
Another test of our balance was to ride in and out of a series of cones, which were placed quite closely together.When we had mastered this skill we had to try and do the activity with just one hand on the handle bars - and then we had to swap hands!
Constable Jo also had some difficult tasks that she ran us through, where we had to practice our turning skills and giving way. We had to ride forward, check behind us for traffic, signal that we were going to turn and then give way to the through traffic.
It was tricky to remember all of the things that we needed to do to be safe, but we did get better the more we practised.
These are all skills that we need to continue to work on a LOT before we are ready to ride on the road on our own!
Our last balancing challenge was to ride as slowly as we could over a very short distance (approx 3m)
Everyone had a go and times ranged from 6.4 seconds to 19.5 seconds.
Jaxon took out the title and won the prize, which was a real accomplishment as he was on the biggest bike of all!
The whole session was really brilliant and we all had a wonderful time working on our biking skills. We realise that we still have a lot to work on, but we will keep thinking about these skills prior to our class bike ride in a couple of weeks.
Constable Jo also had some difficult tasks that she ran us through, where we had to practice our turning skills and giving way. We had to ride forward, check behind us for traffic, signal that we were going to turn and then give way to the through traffic.It was tricky to remember all of the things that we needed to do to be safe, but we did get better the more we practised.
These are all skills that we need to continue to work on a LOT before we are ready to ride on the road on our own!
Our last balancing challenge was to ride as slowly as we could over a very short distance (approx 3m)Everyone had a go and times ranged from 6.4 seconds to 19.5 seconds.
Jaxon took out the title and won the prize, which was a real accomplishment as he was on the biggest bike of all!
The whole session was really brilliant and we all had a wonderful time working on our biking skills. We realise that we still have a lot to work on, but we will keep thinking about these skills prior to our class bike ride in a couple of weeks.
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